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Easter Treasure Hunt Part 2

For the purposes of making your Easter Saturday night easier if you are up doing clues like I am I am sharing my hunt clues from the last two years.

Our very first easter hunt was a follow the string hunt. That is the easter bunny tied string all around the house and they had to follow it to find their easter basket. It was talked about so much that for the last two years our treasure hunt has also included a new element of follow the string. This year we will do the same…. we just have to be careful that the dogs clumsy walking doesn’t destroy it all.

All our hiding spots have to be very good as our dog is a bit of a guts and would eat it all before morning.

I hope you find some use for the clues which I have recycled from other peoples hunts and random thinking of mine own (the really bad ones are probably mine – ha ha)

Easter Hunt – A family tradition

I love Easter. My girls love Easter. It has become of a bit of a family tradition to have an Easter Hunt. Unfortunately that means me scrambling like crazy on Easter Saturday night trying to write up clues.

I use a mix of chocolate and small easter gifts for the hunt but you could use whatever suits your family from boiled eggs, to extravagant gifts to just the thrill of the hunt.

Each year I search the internet looking for new clues. I have included my Easter Hunt Clues from previous years here to help you out in case you are doing the same.

These clues could also be adapted for other types of treasure hunt throughout the year

Don’t judge me on the clues, my girls are only little.

Holly

P.S. The poo clue relates to Nutella

The friends clue relates to the rabbit hutch

P.P.S. I have just added another lots of Easter Egg Hunt Clues from another year up to see them click here.

P.P.P.S. Did you know that Not Another Baby Shop has all sorts of baby easter present ideas, toddler and big kid easter gifts and baby easter outfits, just click here. We love Easter!

Our Easter Egg Hunt Clues

Forget the frilly pink dresses. While these are the types of unique baby gifts that give mum happy tears, for dad it’s not such a wondrous moment. In a couple of years he’ll come to love his time in a tutu, but for now the thought of pink tulle sends shivers down his spine.

Mum gets plenty of gifts (deservedly so), but just a few gifts aimed at dad would not go astray. So how do you choose a baby gift to make dad really smile and not just that “ahh great” smile?

Buying a Baby Gift is Easy Enough

Buying a gift for baby can be easy enough – you’ll find something cute at your favourite store. Buying a gift that dad will love may take a little more time and thought but will always be remembered.

Some dads like practical gifts like a nappy bin or even a box of nappies. While it’s appreciated, it doesn’t really bring too much excitement…”woohoo a box of nappies!”

You are just about guaranteed to get a big smile from dad if you buy a themed baby gift. To pick your theme, think about what dad likes most – after all this bub is going to be a chip off the old block…well so he hopes anyway.

Is dad an outdoors man? Then buy something practical and useful, for when the child is older that the dad can teach them how to use, like a utility axe. Or a crossbow. Ok, maybe not, but perhaps a My First Swiss Army Knife would be the go.

Themed Baby Outfits that Dad will Love

No matter what dad’s favourite team, rockband, tv show or sport, you can find a themed baby onesie that will suit the occasion. There are all sorts of cool baby outfits out there that will be appreciated by dad. For example, music themedbaby apparel like AC/DC t-shirts, onesies or bibs, car or bike wear like Ferrari jumpsuits, sports wear such as Bronco jerseys or soccer socks and TV apparel like Doctor Who onsies. You can even get a little outfit to match dad’s job – mechanics overalls, doctors scrubs, suits or police uniforms.

Baby Toys that Dad will Love

You can’t go wrong with a good themed toy. Most dads love toys so why not buy something related to dad’s favourite thing. Even if bub won’t be able to use it yet, dad certainly will. There are baby tool kits, tin toys, wooden toys, soft sports balls, baby guitars and motorised bikes or cars (and yes there are plenty of pink ones). Dads love big tonka trucks too. Especially ones big enough to put bub in and zoom them around the lounge room. Reading to a baby is one of lifes simple pleasures. So if for example dad likes Star Wars check out Darth Vader and Son.

Memorabilia as a Baby Gift

Sports lover dads are generally easy to buy for, and with a little extra thought you can make a truly memorable gift – think about major events or victories in the year of the birth and go from there. Does dad like cricket? Who did Australia beat this year? Did dad attend any of the games? Can you get a bat signed by the players? Who is dad’s favourite player? Can you get a baby book signed by one of the players?

Memorabilia is also great for a tv/movie/music buff or comic dad. Think about something that came out in the year dad was born or the year bub was born. Or pick something that relates to a story about dad that he will someday share with his little one (but not about that night when he… yeah you know the story). For something music related, you could also get something just for baby, for example a Rock Lullaby CD… which gives homage to dad’s favourite band but is just for bub.

Still stuck for ideas for a baby gift?

Did I mention toys? Most dads love toys, so buying a few toys of any sort for when bub is older is always good. A manly nappy bag is handy too. Yes, I wrote that. When coming up with your baby gift just always remember the number one rule: no lace, no frills.

My top 5 tips for working at home with kids.

People often ask how I manage working part time, working my businesses and managing my children… depending on which day you get me, I might smile politely and or give a wicked laugh.

You see some days I just don’t manage! I’m not a super mum – well, I am a super mum as most mums are super mums in their children’s eyes, but I am not a super mum as in the type of mum who manages everything perfectly. Some days I wonder why I take on all the things I do. My house isn’t perfectly tidy and clean and my kids aren’t always perfectly behaved and some days… well let’s not beat around the bush, most days, I’d like to be a better mum. Overall I am happy with my lot and if I wasn’t filling my time with this particular combination of things it would be some other combination.

So, what have I learnt about working at home with children? My first response, would be to do the opposite of what I do and then everything will work out just fine, but that’s mostly tongue in cheek! I’m not completely disciplined or organised (I’d love to be but I’m just not), but I have drive to keep my business going and making it better and better and providing good quality fun products to my customers and the passion to make sure I am being a good mum to my girls. So whatever work you choose to do from home, you have to be motivated to want to do it and have the passion to make it all work together. It doesn’t always go to plan and sometimes I want to crawl into a corner, but in the end it’s all worth it and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

So here they are, my top 5 tips for working at home with kids:

1. Things don’t just take a ‘minute’.

Who am I kidding? I often think I’ll just jump online and send this email or add this product – it will only take a minute. Truth be told though, most things that only take a minute will actually take ten. I find as soon as I sort things out to create some time, I’ll sit down and immediately have someone tugging on my arm or calling out to me… meaning that ‘minute’ task takes twenty or maybe even an hour. Frustrated, impatient and angry is not a good place for a mum to be. Rather, write down those one minute tasks and wait until the house is quiet at night or get up before the children are awake. Otherwise, be prepared to grab those genuine opportunities when the kids are completely occupied with something.

2.Focus.

As soon as my kids turn on Peppa Pig or Ben and Holly I think: “Right, I have five minutes to get this done.” Then I will sit down and peruse facebook or check ebay or pinterest… and then whamo the five minutes is gone and I’m surrounded by little people again asking for my attention and I’ve missed the opportunity. That little bit of discipline to maintain focus in those moments is the difference between super mum and screaming like a banshee: “Mummy just needs five more minutes!”

3. Set a time for emails.

You could answer emails all day as they come in, and achieve nothing as a result. I aim to do my emails first thing in the morning and last thing at night. If I was more disciplined that might be it, but if I am sitting with my girls I will often have a sneaky look at my emails. There are pros and cons of course, being able to quickly respond to something that is time critical can be an advantage, but not being able to – beware the ‘minute’ task – can quickly lead to stress and not being able to focus on my girls, which brings me to number

4.Compartmentalise your family time.

This is so important and every week, sometimes every day, I need to remind myself of this one. Stay with what you are doing at the time you are doing it. Put the iPhone away, turn off facebook and quarantine time for each thing, be it playing with your children, or working on your business. Think: “I am spending quality time with my children right now and nothing else is more important.” I’ve always admired parents who can single-mindedly do this within their super busy schedules and lives. When I do this, the world is simpler, the task gets done more quickly and I am a happier Mum. Never underestimate the importance of being able to spend quality, non-distracted time with your children, for you and your kids.

5. When the going gets tough: stop, breathe and maybe even ask for help.

Tip number 5 is a hard lesson for someone that likes to have total control of everything. I have a great mum and she helps me a lot with my business. I am not very good at outsourcing though, I like to do it all myself, and it is hard to hand off responsibility. If you are like me, then some weeks you have to be prepared not to send out that newsletter or not to do some business development work yourself. You need to ask someone else to do it or you need to let it go. I have learnt that I can’t do everything, sometimes I need to take a deep breath assess what is the most important things for me to achieve and then let the rest go.

So no real surprises here, you need to do what works for you. I’ve tried to illustrate the tips with real life examples of what happens and how I try to manage. Remember, when you see another mum, it’s likely she might look all calm on the surface but like a duck she will be madly paddling under the surface. Add to that, everyone’s calm is different, and everyone paddles a different way!

Oh and here’s one more tip… always properly save and close out of your website, facebook, or other work when you walk away – little people have a habit of adding or editing for you 😉

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Do you give Easter Eggs or Easter Gifts at Easter?

Easter is coming up. Do you give Easter Eggs, easter gifts or both. i am a little bit obsessed with themed events so do a bit of both. Last year the Easter bunny left metres and metres of string for the girls to follow and find their Easter presents over the house. Our big dog is a good sniffer so each bit of string ended in a cupboard or drawer – clever Easter bunny!

Easter gift obsessed!

Being obssessed with themed events my girls have more than one Easter gift. They recieve an easter present, eggs and general an easter outfit too! I just can’t help myself as the bunnies and chicken we get in store are so cute and such great gifts. Its all about the fun though and smiling, laughing and happiness.

Easter to us is about family and friends, love and friendship and we wish you all this and more for this holiday season.

Wrap Free

Does your school have a wrap free lunch policy? Ours does and I have to say, at first it was a bit confusing. What exactly did they mean and what was the purpose. It wasn’t explained anywhere in our school newsletter so I took to our facebook page and polled our likers…. needless to say we got a range of answers. After several newsletters which each explained just a tiny bit more I have finally pieced together the answer… or at least what it means at our school.

So what does wrap free mean?

Well really its very simple and I guess I knew what it meant all the way along I just didn’t know how far they meant it to go. Wrap free at our school means food has to be packed in containers that can be reused and isn’t disposed of after one use. This means if you buy things in packages (like tiny teddy biscuits, pop corn, museli bars, yogurt etc etc) you have to repackage into a resuable container – take it out of its container and put it in another…. hmmm

So why are schools going wrap free?

Admirably some are doing it to save waste

but I guess that’s what had me stumped… do they really want me to repackage things… that would mean I’m 1. destroying the environment for buying food with so much packaging and 2. then having to wash a container as well using water detergent etc, so double enviromental impact.

Some would suggest that it is good forsaving money as you start to buy stuff with less packaging ie buy a big packet of popcorn or make your own and split it accross containers rather than small packets but I’m not sure as I hate to waste food at the moment I like buying things in small packages. If I only use them once a week, I can use one little pack, put the rest back in the cuboard and they are not open so they wont go stale….maybe when I am making lunch for more than one little chicken things will change.

Dont get me wrong it has certainly made me think about what I buy and I’m all for trying to change to for our enviorment and I guess in time my habits will change…right?

Another reason for wrap free is a sensible one – little kids can’t open packets but on that one Miss 4 can’t open my new expensive Tupperware sandwiches containers either in fact I can’t open them without breaking a nail.

Having got over my angst about repacking food we are doing well with our wrap free lunchs. I even take my lunch wrap free.

Miss 4 has to take morning tea, lunch and a fruit snack all in seperate containers but more on that another day. Needless to say because of this little adventure we have needed to investigate a whole lot of wrap free lunch solutions. We already had some in stock but by far Miss 4s favourite is the Itzy Ritzy snack bags, she can always open them and she loves the funky colours. I love that you can just throw them in the washing machine too.

Teething is the pits…. I know when I have got a tooth ache just how miserable I am and I honestly just can’t imaging what a bub must go through when their little teeth are going through….really regardless of how they handle it they are little troopers.

We have a growing range of products store that I think really help out in this sad little time. Baltic Amber teething necklaces, bracelets and toys (both of my daughters have worn these), chewable teething jewellery for mum (absolutely love these) gorgeous little dribble bibs for when the dribble gets to much and of course teethers. Below is a little visual sample but make sure you check out our range.